Bullied No More: Rise of the Forgotten Heir

CHAPTER 10: WHAT THE WORLD IS HIDING

“Elias ,STOP!” Victor’s shout tore through the chamber. Too late.

The door answered Elias’s touch like it had been waiting centuries for permission. Stone didn’t swing open. It unlearned itself.

A seam of light split the door from top to bottom  not bright, not dark, but wrong. Like reality misremembering its own shape.

The chamber groaned. Seraphine shouted, “That’s not energyget back!”

Elias couldn’t. His hand was fused to the door, blood-mark blazing, veins lit with the same impossible glow. “I didn’t open it,” Elias gasped. “It opened me.”

Council Prime staggered back. “Seal it. NOW.” Julian laughed softly. “You can’t.” Council Prime snapped, “You said this wouldn’t happen.”

Julian tilted his head. “I said it might not.” Victor grabbed Elias’s shoulder. “Let go!”

Elias cried out as something pulled from inside him  not strength, not power  memory. The seam widened. A voice poured through. Not Elias’s mother. Something older.

“Ah,” the voice murmured. “At last. A child who hears without lying.”

Seraphine backed away. “That’s not her.”

Council Prime whispered, “It’s awake.”

Elias choked, “What is?” “The Witness,” Council Prime said. “The thing reality answers to when questioned.”

The light spilled outward, washing over the chamber. For a heartbeat everyone saw it. Not visions. Truth. The city above them wasn’t ancient  it was patched.

Held together by repeating falsehoods layered like mortar. History bent. Memories adjusted. People edited .Victor staggered. “That’s impossible…”

 Elias whispered, “You’ve all been lying to yourselves.”

The Witness spoke again, voice gentle and terrible. “You call it balance,” it said. “I call it fear.” Julian closed his eyes. “Hello, old friend.”

Council Prime rounded on him. “You’ve spoken to it before.”

Julian smiled thinly. “Once. It showed me the ending.”

Victor snarled, “You knew this would happen!”

Julian met his gaze. “I knew something would.”

The seam widened another inch. A hand pressed through human. Female. Shaking. “ELIAS!” His mother’s voice broke him. He surged forward.

Victor wrapped both arms around him. “If you pull her out, the lie collapses!”

Elias screamed, “Then let it!”

Council Prime shouted, “If the lie collapses, billions die!”

Elias sobbed, “You already sacrificed her!”

The Witness hummed, amused. “Such drama,” it said. “You mortals build prisons and call them worlds.”

Seraphine yelled, “What happens if it fully opens?”

Council Prime swallowed. “The truth rewrites itself.”

Julian added quietly, “And survival becomes optional.”

Elias stared at the hand reaching for him. At the blood. At the tremor. She chose me,” Elias said hoarsely.

Council Prime said, “She chose everyone.”

Elias shook his head. “No. You forced her to carry your cowardice.”

The Witness whispered, “Choose, heir.”The chamber shook violently.

Cracks raced up the walls. Above them, the city screamed  not in sound, but in feeling. Victor pressed his forehead to Elias’s. “If you do this… there’s no undoing it.”

Elias whispered, “I know.” Julian murmured, “This is the moment.”

Council Prime raised a trembling hand. “Elias… please.”

Elias looked at each of them. At the manipulators. The protectors. The liars. Then at the hand of the woman who gave up everything so he could live unaware. “No more cages,” Elias said.

The bloodmark flared brighter than ever before. The seam widened. His mother’s face began to emerge from the light  exhausted, defiant, alive. And the Witness laughed softly. “Yes,” it said. “Break it.”

The door cracked again. Reality held its breath. And Elias made his choice.